Swimming sessions - illustration as a personal certificate of achievement for incremental but satisfying improvement

My new year's resolution for 2012 was to set a small, attainable, achievable and measurable goal for myself each month. Actually, each lunar month, as thats somehow more cyclic, and I can watch the month passing in a satisfyingly graphic passage of time. Anyhow, the last month (#3) was to swim 2km. Now, I know all you swimming people think: yeah, 'thats a fair enough distance to do in one go', but I, not very comfortable in water, decided to swim it over the course of the entire month. Very humble, (but measurable!) So I sputtered and splattered my way, and improved modestly, doing 2.6 in the end.So here's my personal achievement certificate, a drawing done last night.... a layer of just line and some water-based inks. Tried drawing on the iPad this evening in the pub but can't seem to get the sense of it yet... have a great weekend now anyone reading this....

Offset 2012 - Interview with Stefan Sagmeister – and whether or not he is design's Oprah Winfrey

I'm just back from an inspiring weekend at design conference Offset, which was held at Dublin's Grand Canal Theatre. The talks are still percolating in the subconscious. Themes that were interesting for me personally seemed to be summed up in this interview. The ever-learning Stefan Sagmeister meets my first creative director Ciarán O'Gaora (zero-g). It touched on the pursuit of happiness, being a graphic designer, maintaining creative longevity, productivity and making time for personal work. Yes, thats all in there somehow. So below is what he looked like just *before* speaking to "that girl" mentioned, and just to prove that yes, I was there, you can see a terribly boring shot of everyone waiting for the interview to start... his head is behind the guy with the glasses, bun and beard, who is Ciarán.

@weloveoffset
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Wonder Woman

Via Linchpins are Everywhere
(If the Ella 'aoao89' would like to reveal herself, please take your limelight!)

A Daily Practice

Google: 'a drawing a day' and you'll come to the site of Lauren Nassef. Beautiful drawings, the kind that people look at and decide they want to be able to draw too. Like watching Whitney back in the day and deciding you'll be a singer. That kind of amazingness of technique and pizz-azz.

So what else comes up online under daily sketching? Well, not as as many swirly notes (but let me know what you find). The exhaustive A Drawing a Day has been going like clockwork since 2004 and is mind boggling for its tenacity. A professional illustrator's blog, with countless faces drawn on the subway, is impressive for its doggedness. Photographer Thomas Hawk is aiming to take a million photos. The image below is from his $2 Portraits project.

Where does daily discipline end and OCD begin?